Row over vice-chancellors' pay

The average university vice-chancellor's pay rose by £12,000 last year, despite a damaging pay row with academics that hit student exams.

The average pay rise during 2005-06 was 7.9%, the Times Higher Education Supplement research found.

Lecturers' leaders warned that the "handsome rewards" for bosses sent the wrong message to staff, as the average academic's pay rose by just 3%.

The University and College Union pointed out that 43 vice-chancellors now earn more than the Prime Minister, while 34 earn £200,000 or more. The average pay packet for vice-chancellors grew by £12,044, from £153,061 to £165,105.

UCU joint general secretary Sally Hunt said: "At a time when the whole sector needs to unite around defending academic values, securing better funding and maintaining our proud world class teaching and research, the handsome rewards for those at the top threaten this vital unity and send exactly the wrong message to university staff.

"Their pay rises come in a year when staff workloads have continued to increase, class sizes have remained unacceptably high and job security remains a distant aspiration for thousands.

"It is vital that universities ensure there is proper scrutiny of vice-chancellors' pay and pension provision if we are to avoid suspicions of one law for those at the top and another for the rest."

The pay rises also came in a year when UCU's two predecessor unions, AUT and Natfhe, were locked in a damaging industrial dispute with university leaders. Academics boycotted exams and refused to mark coursework essays, at one stage affecting students at 40% of universities.

A spokesman for vice-chancellor's group Universities UK said: "It is important to note that vice-chancellors do not 'award themselves' pay packages. Their salaries are agreed by individual university remuneration committees. These committees report to the independent governing body of the university, and invariably include business and other external representatives.

"Any suggestion therefore that such pay deals go unchecked is sadly wide of the mark."